fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised; "I was horrified at the thought of being late for my interview"; "The news of the executions horrified us"
lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless; "a technically perfect but arid performance of the sonata"; "a desiccate romance"; "a prissy and emotionless creature...settles into a mold of desiccated snobbery"-C.J.Rolo
lacking sufficient water or rainfall; "an arid climate"; "a waterless well"; "miles of waterless country to cross"
excessively conventional and unimaginative and hence dull; "why is the middle class so stodgy, so utterly without a sense of humor?"; "a stodgy dinner party"
heavy and starchy and hard to digest; "stodgy food"; "a stodgy pudding served up when everyone was already full"
to move in a twisting or contorted motion, (especially when struggling); "The prisoner writhed in discomfort"; "The child tried to wriggle free from his aunt's embrace"